Baking in a Slow Cooker

You might think that you can only use a slow cooker for savoury meals like casseroles, stews, chilli, bolognese. No, you can cook cakes and desserts in there too! I’ve put all my tips for baking in a slow cooker together for you right here.

Through some dedicated experimenting carried out in my kitchen over the past few years, I have found you can bake all kinds of cakes – from red velvet cake to chocolate cakes, and many more in between – as well as brownies, giant cookies and indulgent desserts like self-saucing puddings and steamed puddings, and even scones in the slow cooker.

Try baking in a slow cooker today and find out how easy it is!

Why Bake in a Slow Cooker?

For me, the benefits of baking in a slow cooker are:

you can get on with other things at the same time

it is less likely to burn due to the longer cooking time

kids can help you, make it a fun activity

you’ll be amazed at what is possible!

What Can You Bake in a Slow Cooker?

You can bake cakes, brownies, giant cookies or shortbreads, giant scones, oat bars like flapjacks, sponge cakes, upside down cakes, bread and butter (or french toast) puddings, self-saucing puddings which form their own layer of sauce under the sponge as they cook, steamed puddings, bread, crumbles, berry pies, the list goes on and on!

Baking in a slow cooker is a favourite pastime of mine and my blog is full of recipes for all of these and more. Check out my Slow Cooker Archives to find them, along with a lot of slow cooker main dishes too.

How Do You Bake in a Slow Cooker?

The basic idea is that you use the heat from direct contact with the slow cooker pot to bake your cake or whatever you want to bake. Imagine your slow cooker pot is like your baking tin.

As a very rough guide, bake your recipe by lining your slow cooker pot with baking paper/parchment, pouring in the mixture and cooking on high for about 1.5 hours, with a tea towel folded under the lid to catch drips.

I have a lot of great tips for baking in a slow cooker which I’ve discovered by baking a LOT of cakes and other things in my slow cooker over the years:

To avoid burning, line the slow cooker pot first or put your bake in a silicone pan.

If you can fit one in you can also put a metal cake tin (round or loaf tin) in your slow cooker pot, and bake your cake in that.

To stop moisture from the slow cooker lid dripping onto your bake put a tea/dish towel under the lid. A few sheets of kitchen roll folded over will also do the same job.

Check your cake during cooking and look out for burning. Use a cake tester to check if the centre is cooked.

To get a brown crust on the top of your bread, turn the loaf several times over during cooking.

For steamed puddings, an oven-safe pudding dish is ideal.

Cook most slow cooker desserts on high.

When making bread, prove your dough in the slow cooker by switching it on low, then when it has proved and risen, switch to high to bake your loaf.

A round slow cooker will produce a round cake which you can slice in two and fill with frosting. But oval cakes are great too!

Make Brownies in Your Slow Cooker

One bake that is great for baking in a slow cooker is brownies – they are made for a gentle bake leaving the middle soft and fudgey and the outside crisp!

Make Cakes in Your Slow Cooker

My main tips for baking cakes in a slow cooker are to use a tea towel under the lid, cook for approx 1.5 hours on high and to make sure you check your cake during cooking regularly and look out for burning.

Use a cake tester or a skewer or a knife to check that the centre of your cake is cooked.

In this way, if you do find that your cake has caught on one side (perhaps your slow cooker has a hot spot), then you can turn the slow cooker dish around in the outer casing.

For a round slow cooker, just spin the dish around, or for an oval slow cooker, take the dish out and put it back in the other way around.

It is also important to get to know your slow cooker. They all bake at their own speed. For example, my oval slow cooker cooks a lot more slowly than my round slow cooker, so I can leave cakes or brownies etc baking in there for a bit longer than I would in my round slow cooker.

The slow cookers with a metal insert (sear and stew models for examples) will bake a cake much more quickly too.

Once you know how your slow cooker bakes then you can use the same timings for your next slow cooker bake. It is a good idea to still check your cake regularly though.

A 3.5 litre slow cooker is used for most of my cake recipes. You can see from the photos above and below that an oval slow cooker produces some tasty results.

A round slow cooker will make a deeper cake so you can split it in half and fill with frosting or jam.

Make a Giant Cookie in Your Slow Cooker

While you couldn’t easily bake separate cookies in your slow cooker, you can bake a giant one to serve smothered in ice cream and chocolate sauce!

The ideal dessert for date night or to wow your family, the centre of the cookie stays soft like cookie dough and just makes you want to drool.

This recipe of mine has been ripped off by various US websites but for the original and best version right here, in metric measurements so no need to try and juggle with cup measurements, you are in the right place!!

In the slow cooker the giant cookies take about two to three hours to bake leaving you free to get on with other things and come back to an amazing dessert.

Bread and butter puddings, that traditional favourite pud, also known as French Toast in the USA, can also be made with brioche, waffles, hot cross buns, panettone and whatever else you can think of really.

All of these can be sliced up and cooked with a simple custard in your crockpot.

Make it your goal this autumn and winter to try some new slow cooker desserts like these:

68 thoughts on “Baking in a Slow Cooker”

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Hi.
I’ve got an Instant Pot with a slow cooker function. Tried the blueberry and banana cake in it and after 1.5 hours on high it’s still wet in middle. Will put it on for another 30 minutes and check.
Have you had other IP users with this?

Hi Clare, I have one of those two but haven’t tried using it yet! I haven’t ever seen anyone saying they’ve made a cake in an instant pot using the slow cooker function so couldn’t comment on that really or the timing. I’d give it another 30 mins then recheck and then check every ten mins or so. Hope that helps!

Hello

Hello, thanks for visiting my blog. I’m Lucy, a slow cooking and baking addict! Have a look in my Slow Cooker archives to see all my slow cooker recipes at a glance, with loads of slow cooker desserts!